Lincoln University faculty seeks more input with curators

A full house was in attendance last month as members of the Lincoln University Faculty Senate discussed a proposed no confidence vote in Said Sewell's work as provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. Thursday Lincoln's faculty voted to create new officer position in the Senate to serve as a liaison with the Board of Curators.
A full house was in attendance last month as members of the Lincoln University Faculty Senate discussed a proposed no confidence vote in Said Sewell's work as provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. Thursday Lincoln's faculty voted to create new officer position in the Senate to serve as a liaison with the Board of Curators.

Lincoln University's faculty want more direct access to the Board of Curators during board meetings.

By nearly unanimous votes, the 75 faculty members who attended Thursday's Faculty Senate meeting approved the creation of:

A new officer position in the Senate to serve as a liaison with the curators.

A two-person panel that would attend curators' meetings and provide "current and relevant" information to the board in addition to information supplied by the administration.

The Senate also approved a resolution seeking the re-creation of a campuswide budget committee that was active when Carolyn Mahoney was LU's president but no longer is active under President Kevin Rome's administration.

The first two votes were based on the same premise: Lincoln's administrators don't always give the curators accurate information.

In their rationale presented to the Faculty Senate, members pointed specifically to the curators' July 18 telephone conference call when the board voted 4-2 to end two music programs and decertify Lincoln's history degree.

During that meeting, faculty have said several times in the weeks since the vote that the number of graduates and of students enrolled in history classes were misreported.

"Inaccurate information concerning academic programs was presented to the board to support the vice president (of Academic Affairs') recommendation concerning program review results and subsequent recommendations concerning the future of said programs," the rationale explained.

State law places a non-voting student on the curators board, who can participate in general board discussions.

The faculty are seeking a similar kind of input - which the board would have to accept since no law or constitutional provision requires it.

During their regular meetings, the curators ask for reports, including a report from the Faculty Senate's chair, but there is no followup unless board members ask specific questions.

When actions are proposed - such as the July votes affecting degree programs - the curators' votes are based on information provided by the administration.

Thursday's Senate action asks the curators to recognize the panel as "an informational panel that could speak up at board meetings," history professor Mike Bardot explained, "because currently there is no apparatus for individuals who are not on the Board of Curators to speak at the meetings.

"They can only speak if they are in fact recognized ahead of time."

Bardot noted faculty can provide materials to the board through President Kevin Rome's office after the curators' meeting has occurred.

In the case of the decision to decertify the history degree - which means it ends in three years unless it's redesigned and that redesign is approved by the school president - information has been sent to curators questioning the statistics used to support their July vote.

The board has taken no action to change that vote, and last week, Rome said his administration has no plans to ask for a re-vote.

The proposed language in the Faculty Senate resolution said the additional Senate officer and the two-person panel would be charged with correcting inaccuracies presented to the board at curators' meetings, but the wording was changed during the Senate's discussion so the new roles would be aimed at providing information.

The Senate's third vote Thursday asks the school administration to re-create the Standing Budget Committee with representatives from administrators, staff and at least two faculty representatives, including the Senate chair.

Supporters said the committee helped administrators get input from those affected by budget conditions.

The fourth vote supported a motion to allow a legal and ethical issues course in LU's nursing program to be counted toward the general education requirements needed for graduation.

"This is the first of many occurrences that are going to happen," Sunder Balasubramanian, general education committee chairman, said. "You're going to have a lot more courses that are going to count," than just the community health classes that had been counted in the past.